


Mercy

by mikane_hoshizora



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 18:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2437970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikane_hoshizora/pseuds/mikane_hoshizora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She'd had mercy on him when the rest of this cruel world had not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> first snk fic and it's a armikasa// i'll write something else eventually  
> posted under "collection" on my ff.n
> 
> enjoy??

When he was little, Armin used to go down to the river and just sit by the bank, watching specks of light catch and shine off the surface. Even the sun, the stars, the rain, seeming so far away; when he was down there by the riverbank with his sandals and his dad’s old picnic blanket, they seemed so real. It was like hope for him, and even when the storm clouds rolled in he could only watch, forlornly, as the gleaming rays of sun wavered and disappeared, and everything slowly came to be so dark in his world.  
  
“It’s a cruel world out there,” said his grandfather, one day when he came home dripping with river water and tears because he’d fallen in, but his grandfather only smiled and brought him hot cocoa and a towel and said, “There are better days to come. Flowers will always bloom. Someday, you’ll be strong.”  
  
But Armin knew. It wasn’t a matter of working hard or wanting to be strong — he  _had_  to be strong. In this world, the strong bullied the weak. Tore them apart. Yelled at them, exploited them, took everything of theirs away. And he was the weak — laughed at, teased, could only watch as Samuel or Christian or Lily or any of the big bullies stomped on his belongings, on his hopes or dreams. And Armin knew that he was one of those lost causes — a bud that would  _never_  bloom.  
  
Then one day something happened. Something that lit his sapphire eyes a little brighter, pulled his spine up a little straighter. One day, there was a flower.  
  
The flower was a beautiful flower. It wasn’t a withering bud like Armin, it  _did_  bloom — blossomed. It shone with a bright and vibrant hue that  _shimmered_  like the very hope he once watched running down the riverbank with his sandals tossed aside and his feet splashing in the mud, one that shone and stood out like the last December red rose amongst its wilting comrades, one that passers-by would stop and sit and admire, and Armin knew that  _this was what he was waiting for._  
  
Something had come into his life.  
  
\--  
  
“Her name is  _Mikasa_ ,” says Eren when the two of them had finally come to a conversation about the flower, who happens to be Eren’s new foster sister. “It means something in her family’s language. I wonder what my name means,” he adds. Eren has always found a way to redirect the conversation back to himself. Armin is patient with him, but he is not willing to oblige him today.  
  
“What’s she like?” he interrupts, feeling ashamed for a moment but plowing on. “ _Mikasa_ , I meant.”  
  
“She’s pretty cool, for a girl,” Eren replies. “I mean, I can stand living with her. I guess.” Armin fights the urge to roll his eyes. He doesn’t want to seem rude in front of his best friend.  
  
“I didn’t mean that. Be more specific!”  
  
It is Eren that rolls his eyes. “You aren’t normally like this, Armin. What’s wrong?”  
  
“Answer the question!” Azure eyes are suddenly lit with a burning flame. Eren pauses, and Armin can tell he doesn’t know what to do. Finally, he sighs.  
  
“She is different from us because her family is from somewhere else. Since they are different, someone tried to hurt them. So  _Mikasa_ ’s family is dead now. She was really quiet when she first came to live with us, probably because she was sad. I feel really bad for her. I don’t know what I would have done if my family died like that,” says Eren.  
  
Armin has given up. For once, he is angered at his best friend. And for once, he is unsure what to reply.  
  
\--  
  
He looks into the eyes of the lacquer-haired girl (“Her name is  _Mikasa_ ,” Eren’s voice rings in his head), and he realizes that she is everything he has imagined her to be.  
  
She extends a hand to pull him up. “Are you alright?” Her eyes yield no emotion. Her gaze casts down on him.  
  
“I…” He is shocked; speechless. He knew she was strong — he knew of her definite power, her ability — to beat up those bullies and scare them away like that. And Armin knows he is weak. He knows that she is supposed to look down on him. The world is cruel, and the strong will pick on the weak.

But  _Mikasa_ does not.

Armin Arlert is seven years old, and he has, for the first time, experienced what mercy truly is.  
  
\--  
  
 _Mikasa_  is strong. She has an intense gaze, a beautiful yet powerfully built frame. Armin knows she can easily strike anyone down — she is at the top of the ladder of strength. Armin knows that she can take advantage of him, of Eren, of any of the kids in town. But he knows that she is kind like no one he has met before.  
  
 _Mikasa_  is strong. She is strong in that silent manner, like the birds that don’t caw when they catch their prey: so amazing yet lonely and so very sad.  _Mikasa_  is the moon in the night sky, she is the candle in the darkness, the sign on the winding path.  _  
_  
 _Mikasa_  is strong, but she has never used her strength to only save herself. She has shared her strength with those who are hurt, abandoned.  _Mikasa_  is willing to protect others with her power, even in this world where everything is so clean-cut, so black and white,  _Mikasa_  is willing to be the one person that can be both.  
  
 _Mikasa_  is strong, but she knows what it feels like to be weak.  
  
 _Mikasa_  is strong, but she’d had mercy on him when the rest of this cruel world had not. 

**Author's Note:**

> //haha this was way too short


End file.
